The cakes looked so good, I had to take a photo.
A year or two ago, Mike and I went back to New York to do some visiting. While we were there, we downtown in Manhattan for a walk around SoHo.
The SoHo area of New York, as many people, know is the area SOuth of HOuston (pronounced house-tin). It started getting popular with the artsy crowd at least 20 years ago and most of the buildings and lofts have been renovated. There are lots of great shops and restaurants. There’s even an Apple Store down there.
It was a kind of crummy day weather-wise but the light drizzle didn’t bother us. People from Arizona generally like rain — because we get so little of it — and we’re no different. Mike’s cousin Rick was with us and he’s from Seattle so he’s used to rain. We walked around the relatively empty streets, past street vendors who’d given up trying to keep their wares dry and were packing up for the day.
Then we saw this bakery. I wish I could remember its name or where it was. North of Canal, I’m sure. We went in, ordered some delicious pastries and coffee, and sat down to snack out of the rain.
This case of cakes and pies and pastries called to me. In Arizona real bakeries are a rarity. Supermarkets here are big and new and almost all of them have a bakery department. Some are actually quite good. Our recently renovated Safeway here in Wickenburg has a nice display case of cakes and cookies these days. But I’ve never seen any bakery in Arizona with a display like this. And I’ve never been to a bakery in Arizona worth writing about.
That’s why I took the photo. To remind me of New York bakeries.
This coming weekend, Mike and I are going back to New York to do some visiting. We’ll only be there two days. But I’m hoping, with my fingers crossed, that we get enough time to drive into Manhattan, perhaps down to Little Italy. There are some Italian pastry shops down there that are to die for. I’d like to put together a little box of goodies to take home on the plane and, if they survive our airline-induced hunger, snack on for a few days next week.
That’s the plan, anyway.
Antelope Canyon is an incredible slot canyon cut through Navajo sandstone. At certain times of the day at certain times of the year, the sunlight enters the top of the canyon, illuminating it with a golden light. The canyon has been featured in many magazines, sometimes with shafts of light capturing particles of dust set in motion by the cool breeze. Everyone who sees these photos dreams of taking photos just like them.
We came up the state road, rounded a bend, and were rather surprised to see this small herd of young open range cattle in our path. As you may be able to tell by their faces in the photo, we weren’t the only ones who were surprised. I clearly remember rolling to a stop in the road about 50 feet from these animals, snapping a photo, and then just waiting for them to move. They didn’t.
This photo was taken on 
I spent the night in a motel in town and arrived at Page Municipal Airport just before dawn. There were just enough clouds on the horizon to make the sunrise interesting. Beams of light shot out from the sun, silhouetting Tower Butte and Navajo Mountain. A nice shot that reminds me of the Arizona state flag.